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I would love to share with you our travels and adventures as international
consultants. About living in Italy, the Veneto area near Venice; in Indonesia,
central Java. Why we love the southeast of the United States and moved back from
Italy. Our love for gardening, the botanical way. Sharing with you our manifold
treasures from exotic places and even offering several at Spectrenoir:http://ebay.to/2xI69uc, for others to enjoy. As well as high end silver items from
Giovanni Raspini, Italy |
google.com/+MariettesBacktoBasics

Saturday, February 24, 2018

Slowly we are nearing the end of Highlights of the Mississippi Cruise...

Tuesday, July 11, we did depart in Baton Rouge at 2:00 AM and after breakfast at 8:30 AM we could get off and walk just across the road to Oak Alley Plantation

Oak Alley Plantation had been such a long time dream!Impressive Greek Revival antebellum home.
Also here, a 13-foot deep veranda encircles the entire house for providing shade for the entire day.
Much needed in the hot and humid Deep South.

As Southern Lady magazine wrote in March-April of 2009:THE GRAND DAME OF THE Great River Road

These two pictures should be seen side by side of course!
Oh, that alley of majestic Live Oaks!
You can almost see the Mississippi river in the end...

"The serenity and quietness of this place is like nowhere else on earth."
Jacques Telesphore Roman and his wife, Celina, spared no expenses when they bult on this land in the late 1830s. The house took two years to complete and featured such details as 28 solid brick columns 8 feet in circumference, 16-inch-thick walls, and a 13 foot-deep veranda that kept the house shaded most of the day--a decided advantage in the Deep South heat.

12.5 foot-ceilings add to the grandeur and beauty.All walls are of solid brick, approximately 16 inches thick.Allwindows and doors face one another for cross ventilation!
For an interesting video of the tour click: Oak Alley Plantation Tour.

Again, for doing the tour and wanting to see the rest, this time frame was not quite enough!Oh, we did have to leave ONCE a person behind that stayed in the gift shop at one of the plantations and the captain announced that we had to depart without him.
Sad... He got transport by taxi and was put up in a hotel and met with us at the next port.
Scary too! Especially if the person would have medications on the boat for the evening and morning...

When we arrived at the House I took this photo of the Oak Alley and in the far distance there are two ladies in period costumes.

Once more in a wider view...Every person should have a chance to BE here; if only ONCE!If only those majestic 300 year old live oak trees could talk.

This photo shows you the THICK inside walls!
Yes, they are made of approx. 16" of solid brick!That keeps the building cool too.

Antique and ORIGINAL Rosewood Cradle of Oak Alley Plantation!
One really does step back in time...

One only can be in awe by such a Ceiling Medallion...

The same bedroom and you see here a fainting couch next to the rosewood cradle.

Oak Alley as seen from the veranda down...

Oak Alley from the veranda in a wider view.

Husband Pieter admiring the view of the gardens, from this 13-foot wide veranda.

Oak Alley has this 13-foot wide veranda encircling the entire house!
Taking care of shade for the entire day...

Admiring those lush Crepe Myrtle trees (Lagerstroemia) in the garden...Our most expensive trees that we have came from a Louisiana nursery and we learned this day WHY this probably is the best state for growing anything!

White blooming Crepe Myrtle tree to the left and in the center a lush Southern Magnolia.

What a lush garden!
More white blooming Crepe Myrtle trees.

There was so much more to explore, like this Confederate Commanding Officer's tent...A little insight into the Civil War (1861 to 1865) and its impact on Louisiana and Oak Alley.

Headquarters of Lieutenant General Richard Taylor, Commanding.Lieutenant General Richard Taylor was a son of President Zachary Taylor and the brother-in-law of Jefferson Davis. He owned a large sugar plantation and was a Louisiana senator.Husband Pieter, having served himself in the Dutch army found this quite interesting to peak into army life back then.

Simple life back then...

This cast iron sugar kettle we saw at the Sugarcane Theaterof Oak Alley.It was used to heat, clarify and evaporate the cane juice over a wood burning furnace.

Walking the grounds, to the left you see again blooming Crepe Myrtles.

Vertical photo of entrance to Oak Alley, the other I used as opening photo above.

Walking back now to our boat, one more time turning around for this majestic live oak alley!A quarter of a mile alley of 300 year old Quercus virginiana 'Live Oaks'.

Now turning around and you can see the America on the Mississippi river behind the dike.
She is being supplied by a fresh produce truck, right here at Oak Alley.
Those that couldn't walk are being transported on golf carts, but both of us manage the walk up to the boat.

Returning back in time; from the old era and also in time for a tour of the Pilot House Tour on our cruise ship.

Back on the dike, for getting to our cruise ship and returning from a visit back in time.
Such a memorable sugar cane plantation!Oak Alley is really the Grande Dame of the Great River Road!